Semantics

Boy, it is interesting how phrases can skew a discussion. Since the partial-birth abortion ban was upheld, I've been listening a lot of discussion on the radio about what are the next steps for pro-choice and anti-choice groups. (Or is that anti-abortion and pro-death groups? Or pro-life and pro-women's health groups?)

To be fair, NPR has been looking at both sides of the issue with their usual civility and decorum, but the inclinations of the "establishment" still shine through
when the question is asked about women making the choice "to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy."

We probably hear those phrases so often that they can rush right past us without noticing what has happened. The fetus is either a child or the by-product of a pregnancy, all depending on the intention of the mother/ pregnant woman. If the woman wants the child, then yes, it is a child, and we're sympathetic to her struggles, her hopes and her joys. If she does not want a baby, then our society sees not a child but an inconvenience, a blob of tissue that will be an obstacle to any of that woman's happiness. Keeping a child is a joy, having an abortion is only terminating a pregnancy. It sounds like having one's tonsils out.

Oops, my mistake, on the news, they always refer to the procedure as "so-called" partial birth abortion. Wouldn't want to misrepresent the truth...

Brownback on Hannity

So I heard Sam Brownback on Hannity today. God bless the man, he has no chance.

I think he knows this though, and I suspect that winning the election is not his primary motivation. I truly believe that his first goal is to bring the sanctity of life into the fore of the public debate. I am convinced of this because of what he said to Sean today. Sean asked Senator Brownback about abortion in the case of rape and he didn't dodge the question as any other politician with blind ambition would have done. He stook his ground and pointed out that the child is still innocent and sentencing her to death will not solve the exterior problems.

That is a hard lesson to take, but one that our society needs to learn.

I'm on the bottom.

Das Boot, part II

So I did finally finish Das Boot. Wifey fell asleep long before it was finished-- big surprise; she's lucky to make it fifteen minutes into any movie and this one was considerably long. Besides, she likes movies that contain a lot of talking. She needles me about "it must be a guy thing" regarding movies that I watch where the main characters can have entire conversations with few, if any words. (See just about any movie by Sergio Leone.) I found it worth the two-disc plod. As one reviewer said, you find yourselves rooting for the crew even though they were fighting for Nazi Germany. The irony of the movie is strong, and to describe that in any detail would be to give away the ending for those who have not seen it.

Sadly, a symbolic victory

So today the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban on partial birth abortion. With mixed feelings I reflect on it, for though a victory for pro-life forces, its passage immediately becomes a symbolic victory.

I say this because the decision today upholds the ban on the method only, but not the practice in concept. The ban, if enforced, will not directly reduce the number of abortions in the United States. As a dammed river will overflow or change course to find its way to the ocean, the forces of abortion have already circumvented the obstacle and moved on to other "safer" methods. Live birth abortion is an alternative to partial-birth abortion in late-term pregnancies. The baby is delivered and placed in another room and denied nourishment or medical care until it dies. Other methods include injecting the fetus with chemicals which will seize its heart; the dead baby is then extracted via cesarian section. (This method in particular plays right into the argument against partial-birth abortion: why is it necessary for the health of the mother that the baby be aborted rather than delivered cesarian section?)

This seeming futility, however, does not negate the urgency in supporting the partial-birth abortion ban and other such legal measures. A symbolic victory in this uphill battle is a victory nonetheless. It sheds light on the brutality of the procedure and opens discussion on why abortion is morally wrong in all cases.